A Whole Lotta Lawson Christmas Pics~

Happy Holiday Happenings at the Lawson house~

Santa has been here!

Full stockings!! Oh yeah!

They each opened one present on Christmas Eve. The presents from my parents. Fun Stuff!

Hey, don't start Christmas Eve without me... (Nat is ALWAYS wearing these roller skates... we call her Tootie.... you know, the little roller skating gal from Facts of Life!)

The Nativity Song on flannel board... A Christmas Eve tradition for years and years... thanks Aunt Ann!

Yea! Baby Polar Bear... I shall call him Snow Ball!

Toasty tuke to keep Chloe warm. (Dad picked it up on a buisness trip to DC)

Fun stuff!

Yessssssssssss, Santa brought us a Wii!

We made 76 Christmas cookies using my friend Carrie's yummy sugar cookie recipe. YUM

Chloe's cool bell cookie and the super neat-o house cookie.

Only a teenager would think to make a tic-tac-toe cookie.

We took a fun horse-drawn carriage ride through downtown SLC.

Trying to stay warm on the carriage ride. (it was in the low 20's Brrrrr)

I love these guys!

Very cold Lawson girls at Temple Square

We love Christmas!

Lawson Family 2007 Christmas Picture & Letter~

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Greetings! It’s hard to believe that it is once again time for our annual update on the Lawson clan. My goal is to be very brief this year, so here I go:
We have had a super fun 2007. In February we traveled to San Diego for a week to attend my cousin’s wedding. We were able to spend a lot of time with our family as well as hit the beach and go to Disneyland for a few days. In July we attended a Call Family reunion in Loomis and had a blast. October was a special month for Gene and me… we traveled to Frankfurt and London for 10 days! Gene had yet another business trip to Europe and I got to tag along with him. We had so much fun visiting castles, seeing the sites and attending two shows: Wicked and Les Miserables. What an amazing trip! In November we traveled to Loomis to spend a week with family and friends and to have Thanksgiving with family. Hmmmmm, three trips to CA in one year, yes, you could say we miss HOME quite a lot!

~Gene: Still working at PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), travels way too much for work, teaching the 12 & 13 yr. olds at church and still the best daddy in the world.

~Debbie: YW’s president, room mom for 3rd and 6th grades, lucky to be able to stay at home to attend to my children’s every needs, enjoys a good book, a good workout and a good game of tennis.

~Chloe: 15, sophomore at Payson high school, varsity tennis, won first place at her very first Deca competition (Deca: business/marketing club at school), still taking piano, piano player for seminary, secretary for seminary, and Mia Maids class president. Still getting excellent grades, but way too social and way too many boys think she’s cute. (she is cute)

~Haley: 11, 6th grade at Liberty Academy, amazing piano player, accompanied a song for the primary sacrament program, started taking flute in band, still loving dance, excellent grades in school. This kid is a wiz in the kitchen, she can whip up homemade cookies, cakes, pancakes or waffles at a moments notice. She’s going to be the most popular college roommate ever!

~Natalie: 8, 3rd grade at Liberty Academy, hilarious child, always making us laugh with her crazy humor, taking horse-back riding lessons…. you should see this girl ride! She is awesome, she is in complete control of the horse and can ride and ride all on her own! She is loving it! Still taking dance and getting superb grades. Loves to read and do any kind of art project.

~Lindsay: 5, preschool at Miss Tonya’s, loves preschool but cannot wait for kindergarten (but mom will be sad when she goes), attends a ½ hour ‘ABC Kids’ story time at the library every week, loves her dance class, enjoys coloring, using her amazing imagination by playing all day, and looking at books. She is beginning to read and is always asking how to spell words, or is trying out her new spelling skills with the refrigerator letter magnets. She’s a smart little cookie and always fun to have around!

We sure do live busy lives with our four active girls, 2 cats, 1 dog and 1 parakeet, but we couldn’t imagine life any other way. We have a lot of fun around here and feel very blessed for all that we have.
We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008.
Gene, Debbie, Chloe, Haley, Natalie & Lindsay Lawson
thelawsons@nuvontmail.com
wearethelawsons.blogspot.com

Life is good if you're facin' South!

Before we bought this house, we came by several times to go through it. The previous owners were so kind about that, always letting us come last minute to see the house. During one of our visits, the husband was telling us a few different things about the house. One of the things he told us was how this house faces south. Okay, so that meant NOTHING to us California-type people... so we asked him what that meant. Well, let me show you what that means!!!!


Days after we have a snow storm, this is what our across-the-street neighbor's house looks like:

(very, very snowy indeed!)

And this is how OUR house looks!!!!

(Oh look! green grass and melting snow!)

When spring comes, our side of the street has green lawns, budding trees and bulbs that are beginning to emerge.... across the street it looks like Alaska with icicles and tons of snow.

So like I said... life is good if you're facin' South!!

Of course... when those big storms hit... it doesn't matter what side of the street you're on!

Check out the post below!!

:)

Snow Day!

Wow! What a fun day we've had. Last night a storm came in and dumped a whole bunch of fluffy snow and we had fun playing in it all morning. We used buckets to make a snow fort and as I was helping Haley, I was thinking...."Who needs the beach?! We have all of this lovely snow to play with!" We were using the buckets the same way we would be using them on the beach to build sand castles. It was very enjoyable. We remember the days when we would have to drive up into the mountains for a snow day, so it's exciting for us to quickly get our snow gear on and simply step outside to enjoy the snow. Gene worked from home today since the roads were too dangerous to drive on, so during a break, we took the girls to the movies. Gene and the older girls saw 'National Treasure' and I took the little gals to see 'Alvin and the Chimpmunks'. Lots of fun! All in all, we had a fabulous snow day!! Yea for Snow!


This is our cool snowguy, a snowMAN would have 3 sections to him, but this Utah snow is so fluffy and powdery that it's super hard to even make a snowball, let alone a full-on 3 part snowman, so instead we made this cool snowguy, Lindsay called him "Whitey" 'cause he's white like the clouds. :)

Weeeeeeee! Sledding fun!

Jack the wonder snow-dog!

Jack jumping up to catch a snowball

One amazing snow fort! We have lots more work to do before it's done!

Our wonderful "SnowGuy"

The Missing Tooth~

The other day Natalie came home from school very excited. She had finally lost a super wiggly tooth! She placed the baggie containing the tooth onto the kitchen counter. Well, soon after I left to go grocery shopping. Then I came home, put away food, made dinner, we had dinner, had FHE, then it was bed time. As Nat headed to her bedroom she asked me where her tooth was. I had no idea! We searched and searched, but could not find the little baggie containing her cute, little tooth. She started to worry because she had to put this tooth under her pillow so the tooth fairy could come..... I almost started to panic when I came up witha super-fabulous idea. I ran to my bathroom and found the stash of old baby teeth I had kept from years and years of the girls loosing their teeth. (I keep everything, ok?) so I grabbed one tooth that was in a little baggie and handed it to Natalie. "Here it is!!" She was relieved and happily skipped off to bed with tooth in hand and was very content the next morning to find a crisp dollar bill under her pillow. Now, the only problem is... What happens if we end up finding the missing tooth?! What the heck do I say then?

:)

"August Rush"

Go see this movie, it is awesome! Go.... right now! Go and see this movie RIGHT NOW! ! !

Even GENE liked it! WOW. Really, really good.

Go and see it when you can!

Now.

Them 'Mount'ins'

Gene and I are ready to move back to CA. We just are. But having said that, there are many things about Utah that I would miss. Our gorgeous view of these mountains. (or as Paysonites pronounce it: "mount'ins" "but'in"= button, "kit'in"=kitten and there is so much more!) I love these mountains all year long: summer, fall, winter and spring, they are beautiful. Of course, my girls do not want to leave here. They have had 2 fun years of living in a nice, big house, fun neighborhood FULL of kids and Chloe has the best friends she has ever had here in Payson. What to do... what to do? Stay or leave? Leave or Stay??? Reasons for moving back to CA include: it's HOME, it's where our families are. It doesn't snow in Loomis, our friends there.... our parents are there. Gene's parents need a lot more help these days, their health isn't all that great and his 2 sisters are dealing with everything now and I would love for us to be close enough to help out. There is so much more to all of this, I cannot write it all down. For now, we stay. Gene continues gaining new skills and titles are work and that will bulk up his resume a lot. That should help our options.

I must add one more thing.... the friends we have here are the best. It would break my heart to leave them, I love them dearly.

For now, we stay. We stay with these amazing MOUNT'INs.

Where, oh where has the time gone?

I was just sitting on my living room couch saying morning prayers with Nat and Haley and getting them out the door when I looked at our Christmas tree. The ornament of Lindsay taken last year at her preschool caught my eye. There was my baby girl. Chubby cheeks, bright smile and long, brown hair. Just then I heard her yell from the basement, "Where are the girls going?" "To school", I answered. I realized at that point that Lindsay is still pretty much that chubby cheeked, bright smiley little girl..... *phew* she's still small and young and only 5. Moments before all of this, Nat showed me this cute little wooden angel her teacher had given her, a gift for being a good helper yesterday. Nat was planning on bringing this angel to school today, along with a lovely bubble-gum wrapper 'blanket', just perfect for a little, wooden angel. "Mom, smell this gum wrapper, doesn't it smell so gooooood?" Yes, Nat, it does. And Nat? Please don't ever grow out of this phase where yummy smelling bubble-gum wrappers go perfectly with your little angels, OK? And Haley? When did you stop playing Barbies and Bratz and with your dolls? Was it when you turned 11? And how in the world did my oldest daughter become a 5'5", 15 year old sophomore in high school? Why, just a moment ago she was the little nursery girl with chubby cheeks and huge, bright eyes who lovingly presented her mommy a gift from her nursery class.... the very same ornament that hangs on my tree today... a tiny photo of a 3 year old Chloe tucked inside a sparkling, white Christmas tree.... my little Chloe.... my 15 year old.

If I had the ability to hold onto my children while they were small forever.... well, I guess I wouldn't, because watching them grow and learn and turn into the people they are today has been the greatest mommy-gift I could ever receive. I'm just thankful I've been home all these years to witness my girls growing up....

My girls are my world. They mean everything to me. And right now, I'm going downstairs to hold onto my 5 year old, because way too soon, those chubby cheeks are going to be gone and that Christmas ornament on my tree of a 4 yr. old Lindsay will be a distant memory.

Where did the time go?

Gene the Man

The Happy Couple!

Jana had this on her blog and I thought it was a great idea, so here is some info. on good ol' Gene:

1.Who's your man? Eugene Edward Lawson

2. How long have you been together? Married 12 years, together 13 years.

3. How long dated? 10 months

4. How old is your man? 44

5. Who eats more? Probably me! I eat and eat all day long, Gene can eat more at one sitting.

6. Who said "I Love You" first? Gene did, on my parent's front porch.

7. Who is taller? Gene is, he's 6 feet, I am 5'5''

8. Who sings better? Oh my, Gene does. He has a wonderful singing voice. He had lessons as a kid.

9. Who is smarter? Probably Gene 'cause he's so much older and wiser than I! I am smarter when it comes to kids and such. Gene is a powerhouse of knowledge!

10. Who's temper is worse? Uh, totally mine.

11. Who does the laundry? I do it, but he helps when he can

12. Who does the dishes? We rotate between me, Gene, Chloe & Haley! It's good to have older kids!

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Gene does, I have to be on the side closest to the door in case my children need their mommy!

14. Who pays the bills? Gene

15. Who is better with the computer? Gene, the IT guy

16. Who mows the lawn? Gene does. I have a few times, and Chloe did it once. If we want it looking perfectly (weeded, edged...) then Gene does it.

17. Who cooks dinner? Mostly me. Gene is a fantastic cook, though. He BBQs and does several other tasty dishes.

18. Who drives when you are together? Gene does, remember? He is older and wiser than I, so he is the better one to drive!

19. Who pays when you go out? Gene does.

20. Who is most stubborn? Oh, totally Gene! Ha ha ha. He is so mild mannered and even tempered.... I am the most stubborn.

21. Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? We do this equally.

22. Who's parents do you see the most? Both of ours. They live 15 minutes away in CA, so when we travel home, we see them both equally.

23. Who kissed who first? Gene kissed me first... very sweet.

24. Who asked who out? Gene 'bought' me at an auction in our singles ward in Livermore, CA for $65. The money went to needy families in the area. That resulted in our first date on December 19, 1994, and we've been together ever since.

25. Who proposed? Gene did, after officially asking my father for his daughter's hand!

26. What is something you enjoy doing together? Going on walks, playing tennis, date nights.

27. Who has more friends? I do, since I try my hardest to hold onto every single friend I have ever had.

28. Who has more siblings? Gene does, he has 3 sisters and 2 brothers. I have 1 brother and 1 sister.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? Gene does, but we always consult each other on all decisions and such. We discuss everything, plan everything, do EVERYTHING together!